AEW’s Streaming Viewership on MAX Now Looks Even More Suspicious

The AEW MAX streaming mystery just got messier—and a whole lot more transparent for everything except wrestling.

A recent Hollywood Reporter article revealed that MAX isn’t shy about bragging when a show does well. The HBO-backed streamer dropped hard numbers this week for The Pitt, calling it a smash hit. According to MAX, the show’s first season is pulling “10 million viewers per episode worldwide” with the premiere reaching “16.2 million.” They also said the series had “13 episodes in a row” of first-night viewership growth. All of that completely contradicts the long-standing claim that MAX keeps all its ratings locked down.

So what does that mean for AEW? When a report from BJ Bethel claimed AEW Dynamite pulls 500,000 viewers weekly on MAX—on top of its live TBS viewership—people were skeptical. Eric Bischoff didn’t buy it for a second, calling it “a number pulled out of the air.” On 83 Weeks, Bischoff said the story came from someone “not associated with AEW, not associated with WBD… just a wrestling fan who somehow discovered information that nobody else has—including Tony, according to Tony.”

Bischoff also pointed to Tony Khan’s vague support of the report as nothing more than damage control: “Then Tony, in a press conference, says, ‘I’ve heard those reports too.’ Which means he’s not confirming it, and he’s not denying it. But he loves the attention… it inflates the image a little bit, and it’s all based on freaking ether. It’s not true at all.”

Khan, during the AEW Dynasty media call, tried to spin it as a positive, saying the report was “very consistent with everything we’ve been told,” and added, “we’re one of the top sports streaming shows.” But that just sounds like PR speak—especially now that we know MAX does release actual ratings when it suits their narrative.

And this week, it clearly suited their narrative—with The Pitt getting the full press push. Which leaves fans and insiders wondering: if AEW was really pulling half a million extra views weekly on streaming, wouldn’t MAX be shouting that from the rooftops too?

For now, the answer seems obvious. They aren’t hiding AEW’s numbers because of “secrecy.” They’re not releasing them because there’s probably nothing worth bragging about.

Do you think AEW is underperforming on MAX and just doesn’t want anyone to know? Or is Tony Khan just being careful about what gets revealed? Hit the comments and let us know what you think’s really going on.